Castello di Ama 2016 L'Apparita Italian Wine Review

Castello di Ama is located at the sight of an original castle that was destroyed in the 15th century. The current buildings that Castello di Ama occupies were built in the 1700s. The winery was restored by the Carini, Tradico and Sebasti families in the early 1970s. The current CO is Lorenza Sebasti (since 1993) and the current winemaker is Marco Pallenti (since 1982). Marco is the president of the Chianti Classico Consortium and was instrumental in setting stricter standards for Chianti Classico Riserva and creating the Gran Selezione designation.

The winery owns 75 hectares of vineyard that lie between 420-527 metres above sea level. In total the winery produces around 27,000 cases of wine. The winery is named after a chapel in the village of Ama.

L’Apparita is the first purebred Merlot produced in Tuscany and was initially released in 1985. Two parcels at the top of the Bellavista vineyard comprise the L’Apparita cru. The vines of this vineyard were firstly planted in 1975 with Canaiolo and Malvasia Bianca. They were replanted in 1982 with Merlot. After the malolactic fermentation, the wine is transferred in oak barriques, 50% of which are new and the rest were second-passage barriques, for approximately 14 months. Around 9000 bottles of this wine was produced in this vintage.

For more information about this winery, please see their website at https://www.castellodiama.com/en/